8 ways Architects & Artists are fighting climate change

We are living in unstable times. Our epoch -- the Anthropocene -- is defined by the presence of humans on earth. Since the 18th century our planet has been purposefully shaped by our hands alone. Technological advancements, from the steam engine to industrialized agriculture, have given rise to new landscapes of globalization and capital: mass urbanization, pollution and extreme weather conditions.

In my work I find it intriguing to see how architects and artists, in their roles as thinkers and producers, are absorbing and reacting to these changing environments. I see architects working with rocket scientists to invent new types of power plants, and artists collaborating with NASA to take spectacular photographs of fast-melting ice caps. The futuristic plastic homes that paid the price of the oil crisis.

Others are using the air itself to create new spaces, or seeking out the unknown fields where precious metals that power our mobile technologies are mined. These architects and artists are offering poetic and captivating alternatives to the image of climate change or environmental news as presented by scientists, politicians or screenwriters. We explore some of the best examples:

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant

This continues Ingels' tradition of using buildings as opportunities to make statements and solve problems. One extraordinary example is a hybrid power plant-ski slope-art project under construction in Demark. Ingels transformed the traditionally bulky and blank exterior of the Amager Bakke power station into a public ski slope, and, working with a team of engineers and scientists, has hacked its chimney too. What once was an icon of industrial waste will now billow out a single smoke ring for every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, creating a visible symbol of the plant's environmental footprint while raising awareness among citizens of the levels of carbon dioxide being emitted.

This continues Ingels' tradition of using buildings as opportunities to make statements and solve problems. One extraordinary example is a hybrid power plant-ski slope-art project under construction in Demark. Ingels transformed the traditionally bulky and blank exterior of the Amager Bakke power station into a public ski slope, and, working with a team of engineers and scientists, has hacked its chimney too. What once was an icon of industrial waste will now billow out a single smoke ring for every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, creating a visible symbol of the plant's environmental footprint while raising awareness among citizens of the levels of carbon dioxide being emitted.

John Gerrard

'Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas)'

John Gerrard's has depicted the now barren and depleted site of the Lucas Gusher, the world's first major oil find, discovered in Spindletop, Texas in 1901. The site is recreated as a digital simulation with a pole bearing a flag of perpetually renewing pressurized black smoke.

The artist's ambitions echo the thoughts of earlier architects: "One of the greatest legacies of the 20th century is not just population explosion or better living standards, but vastly raised carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. This flag gives this invisible gas, this international risk, an image, a way to represent itself," he wrote on the project's website.